Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “The Year Apple Rocked Our World”.
[ Applause ]: this has been an absolutely off-the-wall a year for Apple news, that looking back, I was genuinely impressed at how many surprises Apple packed into 2023, and I’m not just talking about the usual new phones and laptops. Truly Apple made some decisions that really rocked our world, taking risks on entirely new software and Hardware, entering new areas of business, scoring on a few trick, shots and bringing products back that we once thought were goners. This is the perfect time for me to look back on the past year because it is the one-year anniversary of one more thing. Yes, I’ve been doing this show for a whole year, so you know I guess we should celebrate right hold on. I got. I got something right here hold on: oh yep. I always carry a balloon with me for such occasions.
Woohoo. I have been a tech reporter for over 15 years and to me Apple is this company that often feels predictable, and yet this year Apple threw a ton of unexpected news nuggets our way way and frankly, that made it a great year to have a show about Apple because there was always one more thing to talk about with you at the end of each week, how convenient so without further Ado, let us spend a few minutes, looking back at the biggest apple news of 2023 and the stories that will shape our world going Forward I’m Bridget Cary, and this is one more thing. There is no bigger story for Apple this year than the Vision Pro headset. It has been rumored and reported on for years, but 2023 is finally when Tim Cook debuted it to the world in June, at the WWDC developers conference.
It’S just not quite done yet we got a preview of what it will look like and we got a starting price. We learned some things you can do inside of it and how you’ll control it and what you’ll look like wearing it. But we did not see Tim Cook or any executive use it. Only. A select group of reporters have experienced brief demos. The past 6 months have just been a lot of teasing and developer testing until it is ready for launch and in early 2024.
That means there’s still a lot to learn in how it works in the real world and the Vision Pro is going to shape every Apple conversation in some fashion for the foreseeable future. What makes the Vision Pro so extra special is that there’s been so much buildup, but it’s not the first time we waited for a new product back when the iPhone was announced at Mac World in January of 2007. It did not launch for another 6 months when the iPad was announced in January of 2010. It did not release until April.
This is a bit of a longer stretch for Apple’s, first virtual and augmented reality. Headset and the tech involved does make it a more ambitious project, so we’ll just have to wait and see where this goes as if a headset isn’t risky enough Apple also launched two new Financial products, we saw the roll out of Apple pay. Later a user can make a purchase and pay for it in a series of four installments over the course of 6 weeks, and we saw the launch of the high yield savings account for Apple credit card custom customers. But it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows for Apple financial news. The Wall Street Journal reported that apple is pulling the plug on its credit card partnership with Goldman Sachs, giving a proposal for Goldman to get out of its contract in the next 15 months. The reports say: Goldman Sachs lost billions of dollars trying to build out this operation, so we may be finding out who, in the next year or so will be taking over the credit card and savings account business. Would it be Chase American Express a a few names? Are swirling in the air? It’S not great to announce a new product and then there’s news of your partner wanting to jump out of the deal all in the same year. But it doesn’t seem to be slowing Apple down from growing the services side of the business.
For example, Apple’s music streaming service took it up an octave and launched Apple music, classical it’s an additional perk for current music subscribers. The project was in the works for some time, but here Apple was trying to solve a complicated problem in the street streaming World find a way to present and organize classical libraries intelligently, while dealing with over 5 million tracks. That span hundreds of years in different styles, whereas a single famous piece can itself have hundreds of recordings, not to mention how users could be searching for a title in different languages at launch. I felt Apple did make something enjoyable for users who love classical music and for folks who just want to discover new stuff.
I wish it was not a separate app from Apple music. It became its own app because classical was a unique and daunting challenge. It has different data fields from pop, but I doubt that this is the Koda for classical. I am curious if we’re going to hear more from Apple and how it’s going to evolve its music offerings for next year.
The iPhone had its own slew of big headlines. That Shook Up the norm Apple, making the switch from lightning to USBC charging ports was obviously a huge one, and that happened because the European Union adopted a law making USBC charging mandatory on phones and other small devices by 2024. That change alone will shape how we spend money on charging cords and other related accessories that get updated in time.
The EU is also having a hand in more iPhone changes that will start to see in effect next year, as first reported by 9 to-5 Mac, the iPhone will support the RCs messaging standard next year. That means texts between Android and Apple users may be a little more detailed and you might be able to tell when someone else is typing or when they read a message. This also was the first year we saw an entire Apple presentation that was shot on iPhone.
The scary, fast October, M3, news event was all done with iPhone cameras and apple was transparent on how it used a lot of professional gear to make that magic happen. But it showed any doubters that the iPhone Pro really can do it all another big product launched to me was the return of the original homepod. Well, technically, it was a new homepod, but it looked almost the same on the outside.
The original had a rocky start. Debuting in 2017, but it didn’t actually launch until 2018. All with a $ 350 price tag.
The next year the price was cut, and in 2021 we got the news that the homod was going to be discontinued, with all the focus being shifted to the colorful homepod mini. So it was a big surprise to see the large homepod reborn this year and it was pitched as something that pairs with the Apple TV 4K box for a powerful home theater experience. It shows you that nothing is ever truly dead. Like any day now we might get a new iPod, hey, it could happen Apple’s going to keep us on our toes. The big story for the company has been its push to do more for the environment and it’s pledged to make all products carbon neutral by 2030. The Apple watch became the company’s first carbon neutral product. If you buy the sport Loop fabric band, that’s made with recycled materials and apple, also said it’s making the iPhone with more recycled materials.
This year, Apple stopped selling leather accessories in its stores, and it came out with a replacement product that it called Fine woven. The pitch was that a fine woven case would be an environmentally friendly alternative to a leather iPhone case and that it’s made of 68 % postc consumer recycled content. But when Apple makes a product that says we’ll replace leather and it costs $ 60 and it doesn’t feel as nice and it gets marked up easily well fine woven flopped, but I hope it doesn’t deter Apple from tinkering in this space.
It is an important story to follow to see if Apple changes tion in making more environmentally friendly products. If anything, it’s a lesson in marketing and pricing. The Last Story here is a bit of a messy one, but boy is it interesting? Last year, Apple makes a huge investment for Apple TV to be the home of Major League Soccer. It’S the only place you can stream all MLS games for the next 10 years that deal reportedly cost Apple $ 2.5 billion and okay, it sounded nice Apple, wanted to expand its Sports offerings, so it gets its foot into football. But there was a surprise twist: this year, Global soccer, Superstar Leonel Messi, joins MLS and moves to South Florida to play on the inter Miami team. This is a guy who led Argentina to the World Cup title last year. So if you want to get people interested in tuning into MLS games, this is the guy you get and apple played a role in bringing him over.
It’S reported that Apple enticed Messi, to move to Miami by paying him a cut of revenue from new subscribers to Apple TV’s MLS season. Pass Apple did something we never saw before in marketing, but there was a little bit of a hitch messy got a hamstring injury in September and couldn’t play for a while and Inter Miami didn’t make the playoffs still it’s the kind of Apple news that makes the Whole industry think different both in the World of Sports and in streaming. So how did I do for this list that I miss something? That was a major story for you. I know Apple touches our lives in so many ways, heck, maybe for some folks out there. The biggest highlight of the year is just getting a cute little Snoopy watch face, and I wouldn’t blame you for saying so it’s delightful, but I hope I hit on what you think are the big stories and thanks for sticking around for a whole year of episodes.
I appreciate all your support and comments through the year and I’ll be back next week with one more thing as usual: catch you next time. .